Oceania Business

Oceania’s economy is largely centered on its two main countries: Australia and New Zealand. See Countryaah for details.

Oceania’s economy is basically centered on Australia and New Zealand, due to the fact that these two countries together make up more than 90% of the continent and are the only two developed nations in the region.

Australia’s Gross Domestic Product, for example, was 1.5 trillion in 2012; that of New Zealand was 171 billion, while that of Fiji was almost four billion. It is clear that this gigantic difference is not only in the level of development, but also in the territorial and population difference, given that a country with the dimensions and number of inhabitants of Australia is better able to produce wealth than those places that are reduced to one. small islands set.

These small countries, moreover, concentrate their economic activities on tourism, due to the beautiful natural forms available, which have been scarcely explored. Many of these territories are highly dependent on food imports, given the unavailability of arable land. Thus, aspects of Oceania’s economy are basically based on the activities of its two main powers.

On the other hand, Australia and New Zealand are major food producers, constituting an advanced and highly mechanized agriculture, which is linked to a high food industrial park.

In the Australian territory, the cultivation of tobacco, wine and wheat stands out, also counting on reserves of natural gas, coal, uranium, iron ore, gold, copper and many others. It is, therefore, one of the countries that receives the most foreign investment in the world. In the Australian economy, the tertiary sector activities stand out, which correspond to almost 70% of the local wealth production. Exports are mainly directed to Asia, with emphasis on China, which receives a large amount of Australian fuels.

In New Zealand, farming activities are very active in the production of wool, beef, sheep and pork, in addition to the production of dairy products and honey on a large scale. These products are the country’s main forms of export. Also noteworthy is the production of fossil energy resources, such as oil, natural gas and mineral coal.

Another highlight for Oceania’s economy is the existence of APEC (Economic Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific), which integrates Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and countries in Asia and the Americas, forming one of the most important economic blocks in the world., for composing economies such as the United States, China and Japan.

Small countries (Fiji, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu), in addition to tourism in Oceania, also operate to a lesser extent in agricultural production subsistence and fishing activity. Its exports basically consist of primary products, such as cocoa, coconut and bananas.

Economy of Oceania

The Oceania is a continent made up of thousands of islands in the South Pacific and is divided into three regions: Melanesia (black islands), Micronesia (small islands) and Polynesia (many islands), as well as New Zealand and Australia. Melanesia owes its name to the native inhabitants who have black skin and is located in the north, northeast and east of Australia. Micronesia is made up of several small islands, and is located in the north and northeast of Melanesia. Polynesia is the most distant group of islands, between the northeast and southeast of Australia, reaching Hawaii (USA), the northeast, and Easter Island(Chile), to the southeast. Although the continent has many islands, most of them are territories of France, England and the United States. Therefore, there are few independent countries. Economically, only Australia and New Zealand stand out on the world stage.

The islands of Oceania, except New Zealand, have an underdeveloped economy, due to natural factors, isolation from the main markets, small territory, and human factors, such as overpopulation and lack of qualified labor. Tourism is the main source of income for the islands, but fishing and extraction of primary products are also relevant. Agriculture is practiced in small family units, with rare large estates on the larger islands. The main agricultural exports are coconut and derivatives, in addition to cocoa, spices and sugar cane. The extraction of ores occurs on some islands, the main ores are copper and gold, in the islands of Fiji, Solomon and New Guinea, nickel in New Caledonia, and oil, on the island of Irian Jaya.

Australia is the largest country in Oceania, both in territory and in population (approximately 70% of the continent’s population), in addition to having the continent’s best developed economy. Primary production, agriculture and mineral extraction, is of great importance in the Australian economy. Agriculture has a strong mechanization, which increases agricultural productivity, and exports mainly products such as tobacco, wine and wheat, being one of the largest producers of the latter and derived products. Australia’s main herds are sheep, goats and cattle. Mineral extraction is the flagship of the Australian economy. Ores such as bauxite (the world’s largest producer) for the production of aluminum, copper, iron, nickel and gold are the country’s main exports, in addition to others with less economic impact. The Australian industry is well diversified, with production of food products, chemical industry, metallurgy, steel and petrochemicals being the main industries in the country. Tourism is of great importance in the economy, mainly study tourism, being one of the main destinations for those who wish to take a course abroad.

New Zealand has changed its economy in recent years, moving from an economy dependent on agriculture to a diversified economy. Agriculture still represents an important slice of the New Zealand economy, mainly sheep and kiwi exports, in addition to fishing, forestry, fish and seafood production, and planting and timber extraction – mainly exported to Asian countries. In the secondary sector, we see a strong base industry, with steel and metallurgy, in addition to oil production. Tourism, as in Australia, is of great importance in the country’s economy.

Northern Mariana Islands

In 1990, the UN Security Council’s protective status against the Northern Mariana Islands ceased to be declared a free state associated with the United States.

The Republicans won a significant majority in the November 1991 parliamentary elections, deciding that this majority should be used to change relations with the United States, giving the Marianas complete financial control over its 200-mile ocean rights zone.

In 1992, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the land ownership system in the country, according to which only the Marians can own land in the country. In 1994, Froilan C. Tenorio was re-elected governor.

In 1995, there were 22,600 foreign workers in the country – three times more than the number of workers from the Marianas themselves. The latter group also had an unemployment rate of 15%.
In January 1998, Tenorio was re-elected governor. However, the victory was called into question by the opposition as it was his 3rd term.

Local officials, supported by key figures among Republicans in the United States, ran through 1999 an intense dispute with Bill Clinton’s government about the slave-like conditions under which migrant workers in the Marianas worked. Despite these criticisms and similar criticisms from human rights organizations, Washington prefers workers to be subject to almost slave-like conditions. It allows companies from the US to settle down, exploit the cheap labor, and lack of customs regulation between the Marianas and the US as well as write on their goods that they are produced in the US.
Since the 1960’s, the US military has been responsible for extensive pollution of the islands. In early 2002, residents of the Tanapag district of the capital Saipan conducted a demonstration – backed by Greenpeace – in front of the United States Attorney General’s Office in protest against the military’s indifference and massive environmental attacks.

In March 2004, the Commonwealth Development Authority (CDA) rejected a proposal by Governor Babauta to invest $ 500,000 in Palau Micronesia Air. The investment was considered too risky. In the same month, a plan to modernize Saipan airport was presented for several US $ million.

During the period 1990-2005, the annual flow of tourists – predominantly Japanese – reached over ½ million. Tourism accounted for half of the country’s jobs and 25% of GDP.

In 2006, Governor Benigno Fitial was accused of acting autocratic in a number of the country’s media. He had decided to revoke the autonomy of a number of state institutions and place them under his office.

Gender distribution in 2007 was the most uneven in the world. There were only 0.77 men for each woman.

Even before the onset of the global economic crisis, the Marianas were severely weakened financially. The islands are outside the US immigration system, and this had in the years before opened up to 15,000 Chinese migrant workers working in the islands textile industry. However, a 2005 WTO agreement put a stop to this practice and the textile industry was almost wiped out in 2009 – with serious economic consequences for the islands’ economy.

Deputy Governor Timothy P. Villagomez had to resign in April 2009 after being convicted of fraud in a comprehensive case of financial crime. In November 2009, Governor Fitial was re-elected to the post. He got 51% of the votes in the 2nd rounds after deadly running between the two strongest candidates in the 1st rounds.

Parliament voted in February 2013 to put Governor Benigno Fitial in court for a corruption. Post was instead taken over by Eloy Inos.